Accept, decline, postpone: How newcomer productivity is reduced in English Wikipedia by pre-publication review

Abstract

Wikipedia needs to attract and retain newcomers while also increasing the quality of its content. Yet new Wikipedia users are disproportionately affected by the quality assurance mechanisms designed to thwart spammers and promoters. English Wikipedia's Articles for Creation provides a protected space for drafting new articles, which are reviewed against minimum quality guidelines before they are published. In this study we explore how this drafting process has affected the productivity of newcomers in Wikipedia. Using a mixed qualitative and quantitative approach, we show how the process's pre-publication review, which is intended to improve the success of newcomers, in fact decreases newcomer productivity in English Wikipedia and offer recommendations for system designers.